ON THE THREATS OF THE POLITICAL SCLEROSIS
Armen Tsatouryan
Hayots Ashkhar Daily
Published on July 08, 2008
Armenia
The old man has become unbearable
If we try to sum up the whole series of the threats, admonitions,
proposals and promises voiced by L. Ter-Petrosyan, we will see that
they are gradually becoming milder in tone on the one hand, and on
the other hand, the "extramural monologue" is acquiring more and more
serious contents.
Along with making threats and boastful statements, Ter-Petrosyan
also advances proposals and even pronounces words of laudation which,
however, start contradicting the previously-made statements. In the
recent period, Ter-Petrosyan has managed to deliver three speeches
during his rallies organized in Yerevan (June 20 and July 4) and
Gyumri (June 28). The ex-President has also managed to introduce his
own viewpoints through his Press Secretary.
Let’s try to represent the most important messages and proposals
addressed to the top figures of the Government and draw relevant
conclusions.
In the speech delivered on June 20, LTP threatened President Serge
Sargsyan with the European sanctions and proposed him to release his
co-thinkers, promising in return to address a request to the PACE
for not applying sanctions against Armenia.
Otherwise, the ex-President predicted the participation of half a
million people in the July 4 demonstration.
On July 4, forgetting about the fact of PACE’s not applying any
sanction against Armenia, as well as disregarding the absence of
the promised number of demonstrators, L. Ter-Petrosyan offered the
following "transaction" to President Serge Sargsyan: to rule out the
policy conducted by ex-President Robert Kocharyan and get rid of the
state figures who held different posts during his tenure.
Otherwise he threatened that during the August 1 demonstration he
would demand President Serge Sargsyan’s resignation and propose a
political slogan for holding extraordinary presidential elections.
It’s quite possible that not receiving any response to the transaction
and passing over his previously-made admonitions in silence,
Ter-Petrosyan will offer the new President the next – third bargain on
August 1: to dismiss some secondary officials or his personal driver,
otherwise threatening to question the legitimacy of closing "A1+"
TV channel.
Following the same logic in his June 20 and June 28 speeches, Mr.
Ter-Petrosyan made "strictly contradictory" assessments with regard
to incumbent Prime Minister T. Sargsyan and gave him "extremely
mysterious" admonitions.
On June 20, Ter-Petrosyan accused T. Sargsyan of deadly sins, saying
that the latter allegedly concealed the shadow circulation of 70-80
percent of the imported petroleum as well as his own participation in
the sale of the gold reserves while being the Chairman of the Central
Bank. He even insisted that the Prime Minister of Armenia is Armen
Gevorgyan and not Tigran Sargsyan.
As to the speech delivered in Gyumri on June 28, here the ex-President
seemed to have forgotten about his accusations concerning the shady
transaction of petroleum and the sale of gold and announced that
even though Tigran Sargsyan might pursue honest goals and be a good
economist, he would not be allowed to work and at the end, Prime
Minister Serge Sargsyan would lay whole the blame for the failures
on the incumbent Prime Minister.
Since Tigran Sargsyan’s name was not included in the list of the
"individuals subject to prompt release" (publicized by L.
Ter-Petrosyan on July 4) and no one has any doubt that the incumbent
Prime Minister is a "professional, and not a bad economist",
Ter-Petrosyan may pass on to the next step on August 1: to nominate
Prime Minister T.
Sargsyan for some award.
In this case, as well as in case of making a milder demands instead
of urging the resignation of the incumbent President, the dialogue
anticipated by Ter-Petrosyan will probably take place.
Summing up all this, we can state with satisfaction that ex-President
Ter-Petrosyan is gradually moderating his demands to the authorities.
However, along with this, we have to state with regret that having
lost the ability to perceive the reality, the ex-President often
makes statements on initiating activities which are beyond his power;
therefore, at the very next meeting he has to bury his promises
into oblivion.
He forces society to demonstrate an unserious attitude towards the
statesman who used to be the coutntry’s number 1 official. But
since respecting the reputation of such an individual derives
from the permanent interests of our state, we strongly recommend
Mr. Ter-Petrosyan to read his speeches at least once before making
the next statement, and consider the contents of the previously made
assessments and proposals.